Mumbai:
In the recent past, Shiv Sena patriarch Bal Thackeray has repeatedly spared estranged nephew Raj, fuelling fierce speculation that a reconciliation was in the offing. Even Raj appeared to have mellowed down, and at repeated occasions, refrained from unleashing his usual verbal tirades against the Sena faction, barring a few lukewarm barbs directed at his cousin Uddhav Thackeray.
The conjecture surrounding the sudden cooling off of political spleen ended dramatically yesterday, when MNS chief Raj agreed to bury the hatchet, at least for the time being, by announcing his party's support for the Sena in the crucial mayoral election for the Thane Municipal Corporation.
'Balasaheb's wish'"I am fulfilling Balasaheb's wish," Raj said, adding that his party's support for the mayoral candidate fielded by Shiv Sena would be unconditional. In the prelude to this unexpected show of solidarity, three Sena MLAs from Thane -- Eknath Shinde, Pratap Sarnaik and Rajan Vichare -- met Raj with a dispatch from Thackeray senior.
It was Balasaheb's wish to provide the best of facilities for Thane citizens -- the electorate's verdict in favour of Sena-BJP was supreme, and party politics was secondary, explained Raj, offering the rationale behind his decision.
At Nagpur, the MNS corporators have already voted in favour of the BJP mayoral candidate Anil Sole, and deputy mayoral candidate Sandip Jadhav. At Thane, Shiv Sena candidate Harishchandra Patil garnered 73 votes to defeat NCP candidate Najeeb Mulla, who secured 54 votes. BJP candidate Milind Patankar was elected for the deputy mayor's post.
In return for his support, Raj can expect Shiv Sena to return the favour in Nashik, where he needs votes from Shiv Sena-BJP to ensure that the MNS candidate wins the mayor's post. Thackeray's move could herald the winds of political change in the state. Soon after his decision to help Shiv Sena for Thane's mayoral post, Shiv Sena MP Chandrakant Khaire too jumped onto the bandwagon, saying he would meet the MNS chief seeking his party's support for the impending elections for the post of president to the Aurangabad Zilla Parishad. Here, the Sena-BJP alliance needs votes from eight MNS members to clinch power.
Many would find a hint of deja vu in the present scenario, as in the past too, BJP had attempted to reconcile the two warring factions of the Thackeray clan, based on the conviction that their amity and alliance could easily dethrone the ruling Democratic Front led by Congress in the state's legislative assembly. Only time will tell if the two Thackeray cousins will repeat their experiment statewide.